


on the other side

by SophiexHorayne



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn, and they were cell mates, angst with an eventual happy ending, technically cell neighbours but for the sake of the vine reference
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-23 05:41:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23006611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophiexHorayne/pseuds/SophiexHorayne
Summary: Arrested and imprisoned, the Doctor finds herself in a cell neighbouring the last person she wishes to speak to. The Master. Trapped, supposedly for life, they have little else to do but reconcile their differences
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 79





	on the other side

“What?  _ Whyyy.  _ No no  _ no. _ ” The doctor pushes herself away from the bars at the windows, where stars burn and pieces of rock float, and swivels her body around to look at the rest of the room. It isn't even a room. It’s a cell. The ceiling is low and it’s as dark as the walls and the floor; cold, grey stone. Furious and exhausted with everything, she flies over to the door. “I haven’t  _ done  _ anything!” She crashes into the the door, a smooth sliding piece of metal, and bangs on it so the Judoon can hear. “Why am I here?! What am I supposed to have done?!”

There is no response. Only the silence of space. She turns back around again and looks at the room, holding up her sonic and scanning. It sputters and whines and she looks down at it to find it reading  _ cannot identify _ . With a yell of frustration she throws it across the room, and in doing so, she catches the sound of a dark chuckle. It stops her dead.

“Do you really think they haven’t made this place sonic proof, Doctor?”

The voice cuts deep inside of her. She thinks that maybe it’s just in her head- her mind playing tricks. And then she thinks it’s in her head and  _ he  _ is far away, watching it play out, another part of some ludicrous plan. But she concludes that that is not the case. That the voice is real and near. On the other side of the wall. For a moment she is frozen there, staring at the wall. Then she finds herself darting towards it, slapping her hand into the stone.

“ _ What are you doing here? _ ” She hisses, “How are you alive?”

“Judoon came in the nick of time.” She can feel his calm smile, “Shame, really. I was quite ready, this time.”

The Doctor frowns at the wall at the second part, “But  _ why  _ are you here?”

“Oh I don’t know.” The master says, but it’s clear his mocking her, “Hmm, let’s think, shall we?” He slips into her head, because it is still so easy to do so. And her mind is flooded with destruction. Of gallifrey, humans crying, hiding, cybermen- she cuts the connection.

“Stop it.” She snaps. She’s cut the connection but the Master is always in her head. She’s pretty sure he isn’t even doing it on purpose. But he’s always there, a gentle, gentle beat in the background, over everything, always. And she feels him smile. “You’ve made your point.”

“Yes, and I suppose the bigger question is, Doctor, why are  _ you  _ here?”

In her head she can hear him walking around his cell, pacing. She rolls her head slightly to the side as though it will push the image away, and she sighs. Quietly, she admits, “I don’t know.” 

“Oh come  _ onnn  _ Doctor.” The Master says, voice louder as he walks nearer the wall that separates them. The Doctor looks down at the floor, as if the Master can see right through the stone and is looking right at her. “Let’s play a little game.” He pushes himself away from the wall again, twirling around. The movement is loud in the Doctor’s mind and she hates every moment of it. “Why is the Doctor, in prison?” He queries in a sing-song, disjoined tone. He stares at the far wall, the one opposite her. “Did she... kill someone?”

He swivels back around, “Eliminate an entire race?  _ Ooooh  _ yes multiple times. Or maybe… maybe she stole something…” The Master feigns a gasp, “Something from the place she thought was home. Something she didn’t know how to fly properly.  _ Oh  _ now that rings a bell, doesn’t it, Doctor? Yes, you remember that, don’t you Doctor? You remember leaving?”

“Alright.” The Doctor says.

“That’s not an answer. Do you remember leaving?” 

He doesn't mean to, but the final word, though not rolling from his lips, shouts in his mind and the doctor catches it by accident. It’s unusual for the Master to think so loudly. But she hears the word. 

Do you remember leaving  _ me _ ? 

“Of course I do.” The Doctor snaps back, then again, more quietly, “Course I do.” 

“And yet.” He says, walking back over to the wall furthest from the Doctor and sitting down, “You wonder why you’re here.” He lifts up his knee and rests his arm on it, staring across the cell as if he can see her. 

He’s right, of course. But she is sure that if it was for any of those things, they would have caught up with her by now. She thinks of watching Ruth- The Doctor- herself- pull off the Captain’s horn and say it felt like instinct. And she wonders with a deep dull ache in her hearts, what she’s done, that she can’t even remember. 

The Doctor moves away from the wall too. She paces slowly, trying to push the Master out her head even though she can feel him pushing. She glances out the window from where she stands in the centre of the cell. The universe has fallen too quiet. The only thing she can hear is the Master in the back of her head, unconsciously. The  _ tap tap tap tap _ like a radio on the quietest volume. She can’t bear it. She looks back at the wall.

“So how long are you here then? Life?” She asks him. 

“Oh quite probably.” The Master replies. “I doubt, if that is the case, that it will be that long of a sentence. At least I hope.”

She hates when he talks like that, of course as one would hate anyone talking like that. But with him.  _ Him _ . He’s so full of life. Even if it’s life he’s taken from others. She couldn’t begin to imagine him without it. The Master, and no life...he always finds a way back. She couldn’t imagine if…

“Relax, Doctor.” He says. Sometimes, the Doctor thinks too loudly too, “There’s no way of ending anything in here. There is absolutely nothing.” Then he smiles, “Except you, I suppose, now.”

He’s right and she knows it. The room is dark, besides lights up high on the walls, streaking across the ground. It is just these four walls, a window with bars. And the master, imprisoned beside her, less than half a metre of wall between them.

**Author's Note:**

> Yep new fic!! Hope y'all enjoyed this chap, more to come soon xx (also i'm posting this later than I wanted and if i'm late to my 10am class tomorrow-)


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